A Woman of No Importance

“LADY CAROLINE. It is not customary in England, Miss Worsley, for a young lady to speak with such enthusiasm of any person of the opposite sex. English women conceal their feelings till after they are married. They show them then.”

Wilde mocks the social morals and hypocrisy of English society through Lady Caroline’s absurd claim. The notion that people need to conceal their romantic feelings until after marriage is ridiculous, but by having Lady Caroline articulate this perspective as though it were a cultural rule, Wilde exposes how unreasonable such an expectation is while also mocking the English for their preferred unemotionality.

“HESTER. Nothing should be out of the reach of hope. Life is a hope.”

This quote employs repetition and a short sentence structure to indicate the limitless nature of hope. By using the simple, short sentence “life is a hope,” Hester implies that as long as a person is still alive, there is always hope and therefore no one is beyond redemption. This line indicates that while she is a strict and earnestly religious character, she is not cruel or vindictive.

“LADY HUNSTANTON. I believe he said her family was too large. Or was it her feet? I forget which.”

This line features a pun that plays on the double meaning of words for comedic effect. Wilde denotes that Lady Hunstanton is a forgetful and silly character. Her dialogue creates an unexpected and humorous moment by playing with the fact that families and feet could both be considered too large and therefore undesirable in a spouse.

“LORD ILLINGWORTH. It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about, nowadays, saying things against one behind one’s back that are absolutely and entirely true.”

Lord Illingworth’s personality and reputation are both made clear by his opening lines in the play. He conveys that his bad reputation is deserved while also making light of it. His dialogue takes the form of a paraprosdokian, which is a literary device where a sentence takes an unexpected twist, leading to a surprising ending. While the audience would expect Lord Illingworth to end the statement by condemning the gossip against him as untruthful, he instead complains that the negative impressions people have of him are accurate.

“MRS. ALLONBY. They say, Lady Hunstanton, that when good Americans die they go to Paris.

LADY HUNSTANTON. Indeed? And when bad Americans die, where do they go to?

LORD ILLINGWORTH. Oh, they go to America.”

Mrs. Allonby’s joke takes the form of an adage, which is a traditional saying meant to restate a cultural belief or truth. She changes a common aphorism that the good go to heaven and the bad go to hell when they die, substituting heaven for Paris and hell for America. The unexpected repetition of America creates comedy and signifies the English characters’ disdain for the American character, Hester.

“KELVIL. I am afraid, too, that Lord Illingworth regards woman simply as a toy. Now, I have never regarded woman as a toy. Woman is the intellectual helpmeet of man in public as in private life. Without her we should forget the true ideals.”

Mr. Kelvil is one of the few guests at the party who speaks with a sincere tone. His diction indicates his serious and idealistic personality. However, his words also suggest that he has an untrue, idealized perspective on women, which casts his sincerity as bordering on silliness. He views women as only being morally pure when, throughout the rest of the play, Wilde shows how high society women are just as judgmental and callous toward each other as the men are.

“MRS. ALLONBY. Ah, my husband is a sort of promissory note; I’m tired of meeting him.”

Mrs. Allonby uses a metaphor, comparing her husband to a promissory note, which refers to a written legal document wherein a person arranges to pay another person a particular sum of money. This metaphor suggests that she sees her husband as an unpleasant obligation that she would rather avoid if possible, in the same way that a person might try to avoid paying off financial debts. Her dialogue indicates that Mrs. Allonby is a deeply cynical character who is also witty; she is the feminine foil to Lord Illingworth, who also treats romance unemotionally.

“MRS. ALLONBY. Men always want to be a woman’s first love. That is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle instinct about things. What we like is to be a man’s last romance.”

Mrs. Allonby’s dialogue employs parallel structure to juxtapose the romantic preferences of men and women. By framing the sentences in the same way and using the binary between “first” and “last,” Mrs. Allonby shows that men and women are opposites. She claims that men want to impress inexperienced women; while women are equally self-centered, they want to leave a mark on the men they are with and control previously promiscuous husbands.

“MRS. ALLONBY. Oh, the Ideal Man should talk to us as if we were goddesses, and treat us as if we were children.”

Using figurative language, Mrs. Allonby makes dismissive comments about romance from the feminine perspective. While Lord Illingworth’s dialogue claims that men simply view women as targets for sexual conquest, Mrs. Allonby says that women often treat men as nothing but resources to control. The contrast between being a goddess and a child renders ridiculous how women want to be revered and respected, but also pampered and protected by men.

“LADY CAROLINE. As far as I can see, he is to do nothing but pay bills and compliments.”

Lady Caroline’s dialogue uses a rhetorical device known as a zeugma, a figure of speech where a word applies in two different senses of meaning. The verb “pay” can mean to give money, as when Lady Caroline says that a husband should pay bills. However, “pay” is also applied to compliments, meaning that a husband should give his wife praise. This figure of speech contributes to the playful, comedic tone of the scene.

“LADY HUNSTANTON. How clever you are, my dear! You never mean a single word you say.”

Lady Hunstanton’s line demonstrates the use of verbal irony in the play. To admire someone who does not mean anything that they say is unexpected and therefore amusing. This irony conveys how English high society appreciates aesthetic appeal far more than genuine morality, although it judges those who violate moral laws.

“LADY HUNSTANTON. My dear young lady, there was a great deal of truth, I dare say, in what you said, and you looked very pretty while you said it, which is much more important.”

Wilde employs complex syntax in this line, having Lady Hunstanton use several short clauses. This helps to build up suspense and enhances the humor of the final clause, creating a comedic moment by using irony. While the audience is built up to expect that Lady Hunstanton is going to side with Hester after her impassioned speech about sincerity, the final clause indicates that she has not understood Hester’s point at all and simply values her words because she is young and beautiful.

“LADY CAROLINE. After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.”

Wilde employs irony for the purpose of comedy in this line, creating a short and amusing quip that has a surprising ending. While the audience might expect that a person who would be difficult to forgive might be an enemy or a stranger, Lady Caroline is in fact talking about her own brother, indicating that family members can disagree more often than anyone else. Notably, her humorous quip dismisses Hester’s accusation that her own brother seduces women without marrying them and is never held accountable by society, indicating the unfairness of the Gendered Double Standards of the English elite.

“LORD ILLINGWORTH. People’s mothers always bore me to death. All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. 

MRS ALLONBY. No man does. That is his.”

Lord Illingworth and Mrs. Allonby engage in witty banter that juxtaposes the differences between genders. Mrs. Allonby’s response uses simple syntax and intentionally ambiguous words, forcing the audience to think for a moment to understand her meaning. This technique enhances the cleverness of her quick response, as she quickly turns Lord Illingworth’s criticism of women back against him to serve as a criticism of men. The banter between these characters establishes them as narrative foils.

“MRS. ARBUTHNOT. When a man is old enough to do wrong, he should be old enough to do right also.”

Mrs. Arbuthnot uses parallel structure to emphasize that men should take responsibility for their actions. While Lord Illingworth attempts to avoid blame by claiming that he was very young when he had an affair with Mrs. Arbuthnot that resulted in a child, Mrs. Arbuthnot retorts that men old enough to have sexual affairs are old enough to understand that they must marry their partners to legitimize any children produced from the union.

“LORD ILLINGWORTH. If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite enough, and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows is bad for him.”

Lord Illingworth makes a witty joke to excuse his son Gerald, who worries that because he did poorly on exams in school, he will be an unqualified secretary. This joke points out how England’s class system disincentivizes intelligence and scholarship, pointing out that upper class men are thought to be born with the mental faculties they need to succeed, while lower class men are discouraged from pursuing education since it might corrupt them. This statement contributes to Lord Illingworth’s belief that intellect is merely a tool and only passion has real power.

“LORD ILLINGWORTH. To win back my youth, Gerald, there is nothing I wouldn’t do—except take exercise, get up early, or be a useful member of the community.”

Wilde uses a paraprosdokian form of joke, where the ending takes an unexpected turn and subverts expectations. Lord Illingworth’s dialogue employs a double negative that actually indicates a positive, which is a rhetorical device known as litotes. However, he undercuts this by making a joke, specifying that he does not want to put in any effort or change his habits in order to feel younger.

“LORD ILLINGWORTH. Women are pictures. Men are problems. If you want to know what a woman really means—which, by the way, is always a dangerous thing to do—look at her, don’t listen to her.”

Lord Illingworth uses metaphor to explain the difference between men and women. Lord Illingworth compares women to artwork, emphasizing that their value comes from their appearance rather than their thoughts or feelings. This attitude toward women mirrors the overall attitude of English society, which places more value in beauty and external charm than any deeper truth.

“LORD ILLINGWORTH. The happiness of a married man, my dear Gerald, depends on the people he has not married.”

Giving advice to Gerald, Lord Illingworth quips that marital happiness is the consequence of avoiding a bad match more than enjoying a loving partnership. Lord Illingworth adopts an authoritative tone in this scene, using word play to mimic the structure of an aphorism or proverb so that his words seem like wisdom. In giving his son advice, Lord Illingworth seeks to increasingly frame himself as a father figure to Gerald, hoping to gain greater influence over his son than Mrs. Arbuthnot.

“LADY STUTFIELD. The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.”

Lady Stutfield’s perspective on how to obtain pleasure in life uses repetition to emphasize the importance of self-deception. Her words suggest that life is not pleasant, so the only way to be happy is to ignore its painful aspects. This parallels the way in which Mrs. Arbuthnot has had to deceive everyone about her son’s father in order to give him a good upbringing. However, it also suggests that deceptive characters like Lord Illingworth are affiliated with pleasure, calling into question his role as a true villain.

“MRS. ARBUTHNOT. Only love can keep any one alive.”

Mrs. Arbuthnot’s dialogue features a short, simple sentence to convey the universality of her statement about the power of love. This dialogue takes on a sentimental tone as the ending of the play shifts toward the genre of melodrama. Her statement points out that love is the motivating force in her life and that her love for Gerald is so powerful that she cannot regret having a child out of wedlock.

“MRS. ARBUTHNOT. God’s house is the only house where sinners are made welcome.”

Mrs. Arbuthnot’s tone imitates a religious text or biblical edict. However, her words also carry a significant amount of irony that carries with it a social critique. If God’s house, a euphemism referring to the church, welcomes sinners while other places do not, then most of society fails to uphold their Christian morals by offering mercy to those who have sinned.

“LORD ILLINGWORTH. I am extremely fond of him, as you know, and odd though it may seem to you, I admired his conduct last night immensely. He took up the cudgels for that pretty prude with wonderful promptitude.”

Lord Illingworth’s dialogue uses alliteration, a poetic device where the same beginning sound or letter is repeated, in order to emphasize his flippant tone. His diction uses casual and dismissive language, referring to Hester as a “prude” in order to downplay her objections to his attempt to kiss her. Wilde characterizes Lord Illingworth as a careless and amoral person and his language conveys how he does not take his past actions seriously.